Speaker 1: Still the place with Laura Layton, Courtney thorn Smith.
Speaker 2: And Daphnews and Niga and iHeartRadio podcast, right and it
Speaker 2: is exciting and Nasa Williams.
Speaker 3: That's a Estelle Williams, right, you know these floating initials
Speaker 3: that were erroneous and wrong.
Speaker 2: I read about that, but there was a legal erroneous
Speaker 2: settlement between you two. Sad they just said you both
Speaker 2: could use Williams. Right.
Speaker 3: Well, those Williams. Was the thing is I was first,
Speaker 3: and so they should have made her change her name,
Speaker 3: and she was this light and then everyone was making
Speaker 3: mistake and giving me the L and then and then paramount.
Speaker 3: At some point I think it was like some clerk
Speaker 3: put an a initial was being known as Vanessa and
Speaker 3: all these like floating initials l A, you know, it.
Speaker 2: Was all wrong.
Speaker 3: And then I just of late, just after the pandemic,
Speaker 3: I was like, you know what, I'm just going to
Speaker 3: do all three of the name of my My mama
Speaker 3: gave me Vanessa Estelle Williams.
Speaker 2: It's gorgeous.
Speaker 3: I mean it was Vanessa.
Speaker 1: You look insane, gorgeous. I walked in fell over looked better.
Speaker 1: I really full of resentment. I'm trying to cover us.
Speaker 3: Because beautiful, and I mean we're fine.
Speaker 2: That's true, We're fine, but you.
Speaker 3: Mycular fine not fine fine like fine wine like.
Speaker 1: But honestly, the work has been while they were setting up,
Speaker 1: it's been trying not to talk.
Speaker 2: So now we can really talk about everything.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've been, we've we've been like we knew each other.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen was the beginning my like real professional
Speaker 3: career in terms of television. So, I mean, we go
Speaker 3: back so far I couldn't. I was watching the episodes
Speaker 3: last night, you know, the one we're going to discuss
Speaker 3: only and then dipping into like the other episodes, and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my gods, we were such babies. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it seems so long ago, but not that long ago.
Speaker 3: It seems like maybe ten years ago. We do have
Speaker 3: the children in the matter.
Speaker 1: We're just talking about how much fun it would be
Speaker 1: to have all our kids in a picture. And then
Speaker 1: that's to do it like a Melrose picture, like all
Speaker 1: in white.
Speaker 2: And a staircase. Now that's my focus.
Speaker 1: That's what I want to have that happen on a
Speaker 1: staircase like Dynasty, that outside staircase. I wonder if we
Speaker 1: could recreate it, remember that picture. In the first season,
Speaker 1: you got.
Speaker 3: A New York that gap ad. You know, we had
Speaker 3: Annie Lieberwitz, that Annie Lee Express. So I like that.
Speaker 1: Somebody call so do you remember your audition process?
Speaker 3: You can, of course. So they were like, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm new to town, right, I've done a lot of
Speaker 3: theater in New York. I had done a movie, and
Speaker 3: so I was like, let me come out to LA
Speaker 3: and see what's you know, because I'm New York and
Speaker 3: die hard. That's why it's definitely you thought I was
Speaker 3: still living there because I whenever there, I dig in
Speaker 3: and yeah, the places and I you know, I'm just now.
Speaker 2: It was your movie New Jack New Jack City, New
Speaker 2: Jack City.
Speaker 3: There's a bunch of them, right.
Speaker 4: Movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, It's that launched my beginnings. And I came here
Speaker 3: to just check out LA, you know, because I wasn't
Speaker 3: coming so many of my other active friends had come
Speaker 3: on series, you know, the audition to New York and
Speaker 3: then got flown out to LA and I was the
Speaker 3: kind of the trajectory that was in my head. Then
Speaker 3: I had a breakup with a guy who I adored
Speaker 3: and loved, and I was like, let me get out
Speaker 3: of here.
Speaker 1: We don't test l but I'm still too small court
Speaker 1: and I was just going to test the water.
Speaker 3: So I booked Candy Man all right, was my second,
Speaker 3: and I was like, whoo, they like me, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, I'll give it a year. So I sublet
Speaker 3: my place to Erika Alexander, another wonderful actress friend of mine,
Speaker 3: her boyfriend, and two other roommates of his who were
Speaker 3: also actors, still living in New York. Then I came
Speaker 3: out here, stayed with a girlfriend, stayed and got a place,
Speaker 3: and then did Candy Man, and then I started auditioning.
Speaker 3: Actually also met my you know, would be husband, so
Speaker 3: he was my boyfriend. And the audition process was the
Speaker 3: regular Sandy Gale, go see the casting director. Then I
Speaker 3: had a callback with her. Then it was like go
Speaker 3: see the producers and go see go meet Aaron.
Speaker 5: Okay, so you know, it was like you know spelling,
Speaker 5: it's like in the building and it's like you know
Speaker 5: all the things, and you know, my role, I think
Speaker 5: was originally it was going to be like sort of
Speaker 5: the same kind of nine O two one oh set up.
Speaker 3: We're like a Jewish girl, and so like they said,
Speaker 3: let's go black with the role, and so I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: you know, so.
Speaker 2: So were you sitting in a room out in the
Speaker 2: waiting room with all these.
Speaker 3: Like jewish the other time they got to me, you know,
Speaker 3: it was like yeah, okay, but I just remember meeting
Speaker 3: Spelling and he was so dear and lovely and kind.
Speaker 3: And I did my little to do and my little thing,
Speaker 3: and you know, I got home. Man they called me,
Speaker 3: was like you got it. I was like wow right away,
Speaker 3: right away. Yeah, as I recall as memory serves, I
Speaker 3: don't really really remember, but I don't remember it being
Speaker 3: a very long time before finding out that I had
Speaker 3: a series, and that was like and.
Speaker 6: It wasn't sorry, it was part of your audition or
Speaker 6: part of your role description to be a dancer, and
Speaker 6: did you have to do any of that?
Speaker 2: Like did they want to make sure you dance?
Speaker 3: I didn't have to dance. I mean, thank goodness for
Speaker 3: the dance double Okay, So I was I was always
Speaker 3: an actress who moved well with a dance is hard
Speaker 3: in my next life. So it was really perfect. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that was part of the thing.
Speaker 2: Sold it really well because we were questioning.
Speaker 3: There were some episodes were like no, I think that's
Speaker 3: all of aerobic stuff like the teaching that I can
Speaker 3: handle that yeah, the touch that classic seven eight Yeah,
Speaker 3: but the pirouettes and the you know, I could do
Speaker 3: a part. But you know, so I was watching it
Speaker 3: last night and I was like, oh, yeah, this is
Speaker 3: a devil. Those parts are great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you watched the episode was you and your Rival?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: That was fun so much. Is a great, great friend
Speaker 3: of mine. I almost cast her in the in a
Speaker 3: movie that I direct. No, we knew each other, like
Speaker 3: all the sisters kind of knew each other, you know,
Speaker 3: back and forth in auditions and stuff. It'd be always like,
Speaker 3: you know, little mini reunions. Hey, how's it going for you?
Speaker 3: You know, so I knew Gina. I knew Gina. It
Speaker 3: was great that she's Mark, She's she did all of
Speaker 3: her dancing stuff.
Speaker 2: She's a real dancer.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Do you happen to remember the scene they had
Speaker 2: you auditioned with for Melrose at all? Or no?
Speaker 3: It was it was a scene with Doug. It was
Speaker 3: a met Matt Ronda scene, as I recall, because you
Speaker 3: guys were like, oh yeah, we were we were we
Speaker 3: were bombed. You guys were best the best?
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, Okay, and so wait, I want to go
Speaker 2: back to right before. So first of all, you came
Speaker 2: out here and you got Candy Man with my friend
Speaker 2: Virginia Madsen, right.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Virginia was the best, the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was Virginia Madson Casey Lemons, who I knew from
Speaker 3: New York and we were we had such a great time.
Speaker 3: I wasn't even shooting in Chicago, but they flew me
Speaker 3: out just to like meet the woman who my my
Speaker 3: role was sort of modeled on. We were in Cabrini Green,
Speaker 3: which was still standing at the time, and it was
Speaker 3: so fascinating and we created the whole project that looked like,
Speaker 3: you know, a prison, and so we met the woman.
Speaker 3: She was so beautiful. Her home was immaculate, like you know,
Speaker 3: it looked like a prison going through all these like
Speaker 3: you know, metal doors and stuff like that, and then
Speaker 3: inside it was like bright and folded towels and it
Speaker 3: was so really really wonderful. And and Virginia and Casey
Speaker 3: had seen that they were shooting there, so I was there.
Speaker 3: I mean, Bernard was so beautiful, and that whole process,
Speaker 3: like my entry to entredeed to Hollywood. In the business,
Speaker 3: I'm seeing the Hollywood side because I had done several
Speaker 3: plays in New York. You know, I was a full
Speaker 3: on actress when I moved out here. Yeah I was
Speaker 3: a girl and girl lady, but still like naive and
Speaker 3: New Green Green too. It was like starting again, you know,
Speaker 3: going from the theater world and commercials to to the
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, the La Hollywood kind of like you know,
Speaker 3: every you know you could. I remember losing a job
Speaker 3: because I wore like my lear tards and tights. I
Speaker 3: was in rehearsal mode and they, you know, I'm like
Speaker 3: theater like yeah, got it together and leg warmings probably
Speaker 3: in New York, but yeah, but I was in my
Speaker 3: all black. I was doing to Jamie Timmy Timmy Fox Show,
Speaker 3: and they replaced me. They were like, oh no, they
Speaker 3: would come through, the producers would come through the redthrough.
Speaker 3: I mean they still paid me, which was lovely. I
Speaker 3: was like, okay, free money, I'll go on a vacation
Speaker 3: precisely precisely. But it was.
Speaker 1: Because they were confused that you weren't dressed in a
Speaker 1: way they understood.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: I mean I auditioned and I came in like, you
Speaker 3: know whatever, but now we're doing the work.
Speaker 2: The work of rehearsal.
Speaker 3: Rehearsal I didn't know it was like every and this
Speaker 3: was a valuable lesson, right that I learned because it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're always auditioning because at any time they could replace
Speaker 3: you at any time. It's like you're always into LA
Speaker 3: was very like what it looked like. And you know,
Speaker 3: I'm from New York and it's you're growing your character.
Speaker 3: So it was like a whole different mindset than how
Speaker 3: I grew up. I mean I learned. I went to
Speaker 3: Performing Arts High school, so I had been studying the
Speaker 3: craft since fourteen, and I studied with like teachers Tony
Speaker 3: Absen and people like who were about like you could
Speaker 3: change the world with theater, and you can, you know,
Speaker 3: So what we were doing was was a vocation, not
Speaker 3: just like oh your pretty face and you know it's so,
Speaker 3: isn't it.
Speaker 2: You come out here. I mean I didn't start in
Speaker 2: New York, but I did a lot of acting classes
Speaker 2: and I did Beater, and it's like it's a whole
Speaker 2: other game out here. It's a game.
Speaker 3: It's different. It definitely is machine or some sort.
Speaker 2: But so then after I watched some clips of your
Speaker 2: New Jack City and I was so was that was
Speaker 2: right before Melos, Yeah, like right before I was then
Speaker 2: All Star cast.
Speaker 3: It was so like amazing. I was so green on
Speaker 3: that it set too. We had a twenty year reunion.
Speaker 3: I think it's twenty years, could be thirty.
Speaker 2: Whatever the numbers. The numbers loud. It was a while
Speaker 2: said it was thirty.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, sorry, what seemed like yesterday? But we triedbeca
Speaker 3: film festival did a reunion and so Mario and Michael,
Speaker 3: Michelle and I were among the cast members that were
Speaker 3: there to screen the movie again. And I had my
Speaker 3: kids there and it was just so so marvelous and
Speaker 3: I was green, green as hell, and we're doing the
Speaker 3: like the the talk back, and I tell the story
Speaker 3: of how Mario was like, you want to be in
Speaker 3: this you want to be this movie because I didn't
Speaker 3: know about a three show, like staying in the frame
Speaker 3: of the movie. But it's not like they tell you,
Speaker 3: oh that our frame is here if you go out there,
Speaker 3: you know, so he's you can in there again. I
Speaker 3: was like, oh, okay, so yeah, it was. It was
Speaker 3: a new experience, but it was like you know, in
Speaker 3: terms of like the one thing after another after another,
Speaker 3: after another.
Speaker 2: So that did that prime youth. Sorry, I don't want
Speaker 2: to hug the questions, but I came from films too,
Speaker 2: and when I started doing our TV show, it went
Speaker 2: so fast? Were you ready for how fast these scenes go?
Speaker 2: Like there's not time to prepare?
Speaker 3: Right, See, I had only done the one movie, right,
Speaker 3: So I remember Amy feeling like, oh wait, this is
Speaker 3: way too fast. I'm a film actress. I've got time
Speaker 3: to like just my performance, get my close up. And
Speaker 3: it was like and so for me, it wasn't that
Speaker 3: same transition because I had done so much theater where
Speaker 3: it's like you heard you rehearse and then you know,
Speaker 3: talked to bottom. So I didn't have that same sort
Speaker 3: of uh in terms of like how moving.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a big difference. The time in between
Speaker 2: the film is like hours. The time in between is
Speaker 2: maybe twenty minutes.
Speaker 3: Twenty minutes exactly.
Speaker 6: But just the assumption that you know all the things
Speaker 6: like that you're saying, like the two over, like I
Speaker 6: mean I came to Melrose as a new person too,
Speaker 6: and like the assumption is that you're going to know
Speaker 6: those things, and so I remember that feeling of like
Speaker 6: all these terms that were thrown at me was like, hey,
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, what matching?
Speaker 3: What exactly? Exactly? So yeah, but you learn real quick, Yeah,
Speaker 3: real quick. You learned really quickly. And then everyone was
Speaker 3: so kind. Everyone was so I mean. So we were
Speaker 3: talking earlier about how Courtney and I were like, you know,
Speaker 3: like this episode, you're up to you guys, haven't.
Speaker 2: Yeah we have Oh no, you two. Yeah.
Speaker 6: We always can get through our recaps because we keep
Speaker 6: wanting to have our guests on.
Speaker 1: What I think it's fun about watching it again from
Speaker 1: the beginning is I'm watching us all become friends, like
Speaker 1: you watch it in real time like in the beginning,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, we'll see scenes where
Speaker 1: we're actually like looking at each other, they're laughing when
Speaker 1: we're all together. Remember how much fun those scenes were.
Speaker 3: The cart cart I remember my apartment, like the Thanksgivings,
Speaker 3: like all the all those scenes are just like ye
Speaker 3: so crazy shooters. You know that was our hang you
Speaker 3: know we had like the cheers, Yeah, you know, we
Speaker 3: had all of the television tropes and and it's so
Speaker 3: funny like now like knowing, oh that's a theme they introduced,
Speaker 3: and I say they carried it over in fact, I
Speaker 3: noticed like an episode we're talking about where it's just
Speaker 3: call your mother or mother love or something on the
Speaker 3: back of on the which was the b story with
Speaker 3: with Grant and his mom, you know. So it was
Speaker 3: just like I was like, oh, look at that.
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't know that kind of thing. I
Speaker 2: know you did it right.
Speaker 3: I had no idea, Oh this is tying into that.
Speaker 3: So like it was just wonderful training ground because we
Speaker 3: did so many episodes. We did thirty episodes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, unheard us. You're just nowadays.
Speaker 1: You're lucky, are you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Really it was amazing.
Speaker 6: Do you have any like favorite story arcs that that
Speaker 6: you got to participate in or anything that really wait?
Speaker 3: Oh hello, who is it?
Speaker 2: Is it? Doug? He dog?
Speaker 3: I think it's for you. I just called your name,
Speaker 3: honey beautiful.
Speaker 2: That's hilarious. You too, You too?
Speaker 3: You have adult We will that we all have adult
Speaker 3: children and married children like that is like wow, wait, okay, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: they want me to hold us here? Okay can you
Speaker 3: hear yes, darling, I.
Speaker 4: Last time we were together, like we had kids in school.
Speaker 3: Are kids?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Yes, Laura and I were just saying how our kids were, right,
Speaker 3: hold on Let's see, we were both in the shop.
Speaker 2: Great because the fans remember those two faces a lot.
Speaker 3: We were talking about. Laura was asking me what were
Speaker 3: some of my favorite scenes, and I was talking about
Speaker 3: all of the scenes we had together. We were such chums.
Speaker 2: We were such.
Speaker 3: Buddies on the show, on and off screen. It was
Speaker 3: so great. Oh did you freeze?
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go?
Speaker 3: So okay good.
Speaker 4: I had all of that. I had all of that
Speaker 4: humiliating dancing to do with you.
Speaker 3: You were coming to the class, you know, because you
Speaker 3: had to keep the body right. Okay, No, they cut it.
Speaker 3: They cut it so we all looked good. We all
Speaker 3: looked so good. That's so great.
Speaker 4: You haven't lost the second of your kindness.
Speaker 3: Oh sweet, that's so funny. And I'm still dancing. I
Speaker 3: still I love to dance. I still go. I go
Speaker 3: to Mama Shelter, you Utopia Tribe, these and I keep
Speaker 3: up with all the DJs, so like, yeah, like I
Speaker 3: love dancing. I love it.
Speaker 2: Wow are you living?
Speaker 3: No, I'm mostly in LA but I get back all
Speaker 3: the time because my oldest Omar is he graduated from
Speaker 3: Cooper Union and now he's working as an artist.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 3: We're having an exhibition for him and you'll all be invited.
Speaker 3: So next month.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So and then my my youngest who's turning twenty one,
Speaker 3: which is crazy because I was pregnant with him on
Speaker 3: Soul Food. He's turning twenty one next month and he's
Speaker 3: at Chapman and and oh my god.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's yeah, that's great. Yeah, you know he is.
Speaker 3: He's a filmmaker, singer. He's like like, he's making videos.
Speaker 3: All I couldn't. Yeah, I didn't want to. I didn't
Speaker 3: want to, Like I just got out of the way
Speaker 3: and let them show me what they wanted to do.
Speaker 3: You too, How long is your show running? I want
Speaker 3: to come see it.
Speaker 4: Oh god, are until November three? It's been a good time.
Speaker 4: So it's great to see you.
Speaker 2: Have so much to talk about. Thanks for calling call.
Speaker 3: I mean it was so like perfect because I just
Speaker 3: went to your name. Did you get cute?
Speaker 2: You love you? That's so great. Miss.
Speaker 3: We gotta do this like offscreen too.
Speaker 2: That's great. I didn't. That was a total surprise. Well
Speaker 2: to me. Yeah, that great, Thank you. He didn't want
Speaker 2: to miss the opportunity to say hi.
Speaker 3: I love it. You have a great chemistry, you know,
Speaker 3: there was so much chemistry going around. You and Andrew
Speaker 3: got together and we were like we saw it coming.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Doug and I was like, you know, my
Speaker 3: my TV husband to like in that in that we
Speaker 3: were just such good friends. I mean, that was what
Speaker 3: we was saying, Like it was such a beautiful way
Speaker 3: to begin, like, you know, this really Hollywood career because
Speaker 3: even though it got really real and really hollywood, you know,
Speaker 3: we saw and the thing is, we saw things coming
Speaker 3: where people would like do whole through five episodes and
Speaker 3: then be replaced or have to like do their whole
Speaker 3: episode like Amy had to do all of this voiceover
Speaker 3: in a different you know, twing on the accent. You know,
Speaker 3: So it was it was really real. But the day
Speaker 3: to day and and the writing and all the things,
Speaker 3: you know, people, it was a lovely place to work.
Speaker 3: It was a really really loved.
Speaker 1: So so when Amy when they decided to get rid
Speaker 1: of the accent, which was a good call because it
Speaker 1: was uncomfortable after did they have her then you said
Speaker 1: they had her voice double whole show just had to.
Speaker 3: Read dub whole shows Like I don't I don't call
Speaker 3: how many episodes, I just recall how TD it was
Speaker 3: for her.
Speaker 2: Wow, baby, that's in a regular accent and just herself.
Speaker 3: Did they they took the accent away, right, okay? They
Speaker 3: so yeah, So she had to do the whole thing
Speaker 3: over like episodes and episode maybe it was like maybe
Speaker 3: two or three.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so much many wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what it's like in an eight R room.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so awful.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because your your characters were roommates through the time
Speaker 6: that she departed the show.
Speaker 2: She was around episode thirteen, right.
Speaker 3: You know, I guess yeah, because how did they write
Speaker 3: her off?
Speaker 2: I think she's probably going to get an acting gig.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it was still there was a false move
Speaker 3: out that I that I saw in my little my
Speaker 3: little head home recasp yees to get back.
Speaker 2: The fans are probably listening, going, I can tell you
Speaker 2: what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You storyline of
Speaker 2: that episode of like being annoyed by this actress roommate ring.
Speaker 3: True, it was, it did. And you know the thing,
Speaker 3: this is what's so funny about watching the show. It
Speaker 3: was so like innocent, like these times were so instant,
Speaker 3: even though it was like crazy times and we thought
Speaker 3: we were cutting edge and we were right. We were
Speaker 3: but if you're looking back now with this guy, it
Speaker 3: was so so innocent and what we especially that time
Speaker 3: on the show too. Again, I always say the thirty
Speaker 3: something was really really popular, and tell how it was
Speaker 3: sort of relate to me and my agent and stuff,
Speaker 3: that this was going to be a twenty something take,
Speaker 3: you know, where like they're all these actors and young
Speaker 3: people and they're starting their lives. We're thirty something was
Speaker 3: like in the middle of family and you know, they're
Speaker 3: in their thirties and their in careers and whatever, and
Speaker 3: so we were gonna do the same thing but in
Speaker 3: our twenties, right, So like all this acts and stuff
Speaker 3: like that. And then they after the first season, they
Speaker 3: were like, you know what, we're gonna go to the
Speaker 3: the winning Aaron Spelling formula and sexies. Yeah, TV Night
Speaker 3: and tv TV.
Speaker 2: So that's what we're really noticing that it's a comple
Speaker 2: We were like, what sure are we?
Speaker 1: I know, I remember that, like it wasn't a big
Speaker 1: big fanfare when we were released, and then it really
Speaker 1: didn't do well because it was sort of this sweet show.
Speaker 1: But I want to ask about that episode because so
Speaker 1: the episode when when Sandy gets a job and your character,
Speaker 1: and I wonder how you were directed because your character
Speaker 1: is just annoyed with her from the like she says,
Speaker 1: pass me this sault. You're like, oh, miss actress. They
Speaker 1: were like you just got to go after her for
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're like, she just got a job.
Speaker 3: I know, right, you know, it was it was a
Speaker 3: disconnect because that was never how I acted in real life,
Speaker 3: you know. And and I you know, I guess they
Speaker 3: was just looking for the drama and like this is
Speaker 3: how people would act, and I guess this would be
Speaker 3: more interesting to watch. Yeah, you know, and I think again,
Speaker 3: like they were tweaking my character, like they didn't really know.
Speaker 3: There were no black writers on the show, so it
Speaker 3: was like there was not a real voice of anyone
Speaker 3: who like what had Ronda's experience, And like I said,
Speaker 3: they were finding the characters and figuring out, you know,
Speaker 3: just how she would respond. So I, as the actors,
Speaker 3: was trying to find some levels to it and whatever.
Speaker 3: But you know, you can't control like what they cut,
Speaker 3: you know, how it gets edited together and what point
Speaker 3: they were trying to make based on whatever the other
Speaker 3: storylines were too, And so you know, I just I
Speaker 3: could justify you know watching it, well, you know, the
Speaker 3: balloons come in and then here's this like selfish girl.
Speaker 3: Oh I got to run out to my Holly party.
Speaker 3: And then what I thought when I was watching it too,
Speaker 3: was you know anything it happened up in that party,
Speaker 3: Like she's going out without her roommate. Like I was like, no,
Speaker 3: she would have taken her girl, you know, or some
Speaker 3: friend with her to make sure. Now do we know
Speaker 3: what Hollywood is with?
Speaker 2: I mean, don't you think it's interesting here in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four looking.
Speaker 7: Back at how innocent innocent and how things we didn't
Speaker 7: think at the time didn't notice just like, Okay, well
Speaker 7: I got to say I did love those hats, though
Speaker 7: I kept those hats.
Speaker 2: Did you get to keep from.
Speaker 3: Some of those pieces were my own? Occually was? And
Speaker 3: but you know it was very you know I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: that's still my style, but colectic off the shoulder, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you had a real style, You had a real she
Speaker 3: was She was really great. And I think that the
Speaker 3: costume people really pulled from what was going on in
Speaker 3: the day. You know, all of that, you know, leisure
Speaker 3: wear as out of wear, you know, the tights, the
Speaker 3: leg warmers and the button always combat boot, always combat.
Speaker 2: Boot, right.
Speaker 3: So it was fun.
Speaker 2: It was so you did have a say in that
Speaker 2: with the wardrobe person say like, bring you things that
Speaker 2: you liked.
Speaker 3: Mostly they brought me things that like in and you know,
Speaker 3: occasionally I was like, oh I have this, and you know,
Speaker 3: it was like a collaboration and certainly all like the wraps,
Speaker 3: the African raps, and you know, because my whole thing
Speaker 3: was like my hair is natural, this how it comes
Speaker 3: down my head. You know, when I got to Hollywood,
Speaker 3: every black girl had to weave down to her next
Speaker 3: So it was radical to be on a TV show
Speaker 3: with like little tiny butting locks and you know, twist
Speaker 3: out and just like you know, here I am like
Speaker 3: this is beautiful too. You know, I've always felt like
Speaker 3: politically conscious and you know I call myself a naturalistu
Speaker 3: og the og huh yeah, because there's that whole movement
Speaker 3: of natural hair, and you know, being not having to
Speaker 3: keep up with any other kind of standard beauty as
Speaker 3: a Ronda was really killing that.
Speaker 2: Well, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: That really wasn't ahead of your time because that just
Speaker 1: came back up a few years ago. Ye were so
Speaker 1: far ahead of time.
Speaker 3: Was kudos to them for embracing it. This is what
Speaker 3: I'm saying that I got hired like that. You know,
Speaker 3: it was really they were really moving the needle and
Speaker 3: really conscious of it. Darren was really great to you know,
Speaker 3: as we go to talk about that, you know, the
Speaker 3: aftermath kind of episode or where I read an initial
Speaker 3: draft and I was like, Ronda can't say, you know,
Speaker 3: I know that they're black people, say those people, I said,
Speaker 3: but you know, Ronda can't. Ronda can't as much as
Speaker 3: she's out of touch with baby, her community and she's
Speaker 3: been in this bubble and in a suburban bubble and
Speaker 3: all our friends or you know, mostly white people, you know,
Speaker 3: she can't. She can't really say, she can't really disassociate
Speaker 3: hers so much. Like I was like, I didn't want
Speaker 3: my myself and my character to be confused that this
Speaker 3: would somehow be like my point of view. So I
Speaker 3: was like, yeah, she can. She can say that, but
Speaker 3: she can't point over there like these people are different
Speaker 3: than her. And so it turned the whole gist of
Speaker 3: the story. I was so grateful, Oh you expressed that,
Speaker 3: and then they that Darren, Darren heard me. I had
Speaker 3: a whole little meeting with you do oh.
Speaker 2: I did. So what was the script originally?
Speaker 3: What ie the vibe? I can't remember precisely, but I
Speaker 3: went in there and I talked about that that that
Speaker 3: I didn't want to like be so out of it, right,
Speaker 3: that I didn't want ron to Chart to be so
Speaker 3: out of it that she also was saying those people
Speaker 3: over there.
Speaker 2: So let me just for our audience. You didn't see
Speaker 2: it because not everyone follows along, but this is the
Speaker 2: episode where it's the same year as the Rodney.
Speaker 3: What's the same year exactly? Because I was I was watching,
Speaker 3: I said, let me see when did this happen? And
Speaker 3: when did we shoot this? So the started and the
Speaker 3: verdict happened in May of ninety two, right, and we
Speaker 3: and this show that episode aired in September, right, so
Speaker 3: it was fresh.
Speaker 2: So that episode what happened in the episode?
Speaker 3: So in the episode, you know, Ronda, well Billy comes
Speaker 3: back and he's gotten robbed, and you know, I was
Speaker 3: so glad they cut away because I was like, what
Speaker 3: happens to be like, how's this happening? And we're all
Speaker 3: all of the whole you know, home crew is like concerned,
Speaker 3: like what happened? And he's just like, yeah, I got
Speaker 3: you know whatever, the car got robbed, but he just
Speaker 3: got robbed. But there's not a scar on him, There's
Speaker 3: not anything. And it was like a dangerous time because
Speaker 3: you know, the riots had happened, all of this angst
Speaker 3: about the policing of those of our neighborhoods and everything
Speaker 3: was really at the fore. It was really really you know,
Speaker 3: volatile time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was down in South Central.
Speaker 3: He was dropping of a lady in South Central and
Speaker 3: then his car gets robbed and like it's kid's cab
Speaker 3: gets like you know, bashed in. But he did. They
Speaker 3: just take him for his money, right, and then what
Speaker 3: else happened to hell.
Speaker 1: You're talking about the scene when he comes back and
Speaker 1: he said, I'm not going to go down there again.
Speaker 3: Right, It's like he makes some sort of he makes
Speaker 3: some sort of deflection about those kinds of people. Yeah, yes, right,
Speaker 3: not like this is a specific thing that happened. I
Speaker 3: got jacked and these guys whatever. He just like blankets
Speaker 3: the whole area. And that was a sentiment like, oh,
Speaker 3: don't go down into the jungle. And you know, Ronda says,
Speaker 3: oh what the jungle, and all these things like that.
Speaker 3: So Ronda takes it like, oh, what are you saying
Speaker 3: about the community that I come from? Just because I
Speaker 3: live here with you guys and I'm in this mumble
Speaker 3: And then she it also causes her to reflect. So
Speaker 3: this is what I go into Darren's office with with, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, she can't be part of among the people
Speaker 3: saying those people over there and I'm separate from that.
Speaker 3: She's got to realize, Oh, I need to grow myself.
Speaker 3: I've been away out of context. I haven't seen my grandmam,
Speaker 3: my cousin, you know, whoever still lives in South Central whatever.
Speaker 3: And that was the thing, like we never got to
Speaker 3: see Rhonda's background, right, but certainly, you know she knows
Speaker 3: people there. She you know, she's a part of that
Speaker 3: community no matter where you know, where you are. And
Speaker 3: and so I was just really grateful that he that
Speaker 3: that Darren really heard me and turned it into Okay,
Speaker 3: let's everybody have an awakening. Awakening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. Yea, I love the whole story.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy because we were talking about it, when
Speaker 1: we talked about the episode, We're saying, I wonder what
Speaker 1: that was like for you because there were very few
Speaker 1: women on the writing staff, there may have been one
Speaker 1: at that point and you know black people at all.
Speaker 1: And I love that makes sense because it really felt
Speaker 1: like they had a pretty good handle on it.
Speaker 3: Why because it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really talked about and more real than a
Speaker 2: stere cliche storyline, right, which it could have been.
Speaker 3: It easily easily could have been. And I think that
Speaker 3: you know, to our level of commitment to craft and
Speaker 3: really going deeper with it, and their commitment to like
Speaker 3: really telling a story. Again, like the focus of it
Speaker 3: was really about, you know, young adults growing into themselves
Speaker 3: and what kind of world they wanted to create and
Speaker 3: live in and how their worldview would would be right.
Speaker 1: I love that you did that though, because it took courage.
Speaker 1: So we talk a lot of it was exact word,
Speaker 1: we had to do everything. So I love that you
Speaker 1: had the courage to call them and say this doesn't
Speaker 1: feel authentic, man, and that they listened.
Speaker 3: It was really it was really powerful, and it was
Speaker 3: sort of like I was nervous to do it. I
Speaker 3: was like, and it's not like I went through my
Speaker 3: agent and say hey, I want to have it, like
Speaker 3: I just but we had already there had been this
Speaker 3: sort of like familiarity within the production company and Aaron
Speaker 3: and Darren that I felt that I could come when
Speaker 3: something troubled me. I knew regardless that I couldn't live
Speaker 3: with myself without sayings they had listened to or not.
Speaker 3: I was going to have to act my way through
Speaker 3: those deeper meanings or the meanings that I was trying
Speaker 3: to say. It was moving to be to be able
Speaker 3: to affect the change, like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you feel like that in other storylines.
Speaker 6: Like did you find yourself like with that door open?
Speaker 6: Was that then an ongoing conversation that you.
Speaker 3: It wasn't necessarily an ongoing conversation, listen, I was happy
Speaker 3: to be there, Yeah, okay, like I want to pay job.
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't.
Speaker 3: It wasn't that I felt like I would be pushing
Speaker 3: or anything. But it never got like that sensitive about
Speaker 3: these like racial kinds of things.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Then it just became universal themes of like relationships with
Speaker 3: your MoMA, you know, what do your friends say? And
Speaker 3: the act or the actor as like that wasn't that
Speaker 3: wasn't something I needed to go to the back to
Speaker 3: back right, you know, like you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: It was just like Okay, this is this could be
Speaker 3: somebody's take on it. Another episode that comes to mind
Speaker 3: was when raid On Chong came talking about Roommates from Hell.
Speaker 3: But that how far along.
Speaker 6: We're we're we're about to watch it.
Speaker 3: Oh, you can talk about because because because it's after
Speaker 3: Amy leaves. Oh, and then she comes in, I get
Speaker 3: like this single white female kind of It's just like
Speaker 3: she's you know, she's like commandeering my life and rearranging
Speaker 3: my my my hangars in my closet and I'm like,
Speaker 3: where is my Oh I cleaned everything with bleach and
Speaker 3: it was just like, my god, so funny. And ray
Speaker 3: Raydn is such a marvelous actress, so it was like
Speaker 3: beautiful having her as a guest star and having to
Speaker 3: do all that. And she was such a like differential
Speaker 3: from any character we'd ever seen her play, So she
Speaker 3: was on it.
Speaker 2: We had such great guest stars.
Speaker 1: You talked about that a lot, how much fun it
Speaker 1: is to see who came through. I missed that about
Speaker 1: being a regular on the show. I miss meeting all
Speaker 1: the people you get to come from, get.
Speaker 3: To work, and wonderful directors as well.
Speaker 2: You know, what do you remember? I don't know. After
Speaker 2: thirty years.
Speaker 1: We can't remember some of them who come back to
Speaker 1: Richard Lang. We remember Dannie Carell and Charlie Carrell.
Speaker 2: Talked about Victoria with Thomas. You had a hard time
Speaker 2: with Victoria Hackburg. I don't know if.
Speaker 3: Rooney Bean that's what I was Bethan Rooney. And then
Speaker 3: I worked with Bethany again on some other shows. But
Speaker 3: Bethany was great. She's amazing. What she wanted she really did.
Speaker 3: She was like she was she was a mom too,
Speaker 3: and she was like okay. She really had a way
Speaker 3: of like nurturing way of talking to actors. I loved it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: clear vision.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she was connected us and the men. It's happened
Speaker 1: with all the women directors. The men would go are
Speaker 1: you sure, and she would.
Speaker 3: Go, I am. And think about how like love that
Speaker 3: she was.
Speaker 1: So she knew exactly what she wanted to go. Really,
Speaker 1: She's like yes, and I was like, oh, that's why
Speaker 1: I want to be.
Speaker 3: These were very crucial times in our social constructs, of
Speaker 3: of of of ideas about women. And you know this,
Speaker 3: the nineties were really really volt times. You know, we
Speaker 3: look back now and think, yeah, you know, you know,
Speaker 3: women's rye and all the things, but we were moving
Speaker 3: the needle so far in those times, and yeah, it
Speaker 3: was really cutting edge.
Speaker 2: That's a good point that you're saying, Vanessa, because I
Speaker 2: think of the nineties and again my age being so young,
Speaker 2: like you're saying, we're also young, and so I think
Speaker 2: of it as a very nostalgic, joyful time, but you
Speaker 2: forget what really, in a bigger sense, those times were about.
Speaker 3: For sure. I mean that we can list all these
Speaker 3: women directors on our show that wasn't the norm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even yeah, and even and even the storylines
Speaker 2: you know, we went back to I've seen a lot
Speaker 2: of them now and just all the drama that they
Speaker 2: came up with was violence against women.
Speaker 3: Yes, go to Yes, I mean.
Speaker 2: That did you feel that coming in the season one?
Speaker 2: Did that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: Remember they the episode where Amy is getting stalked, Like
Speaker 3: it's a light stalking, Yeah, you know, it's yeah, there's flowers.
Speaker 3: But I was like, oh, this was them touching at
Speaker 3: some really deeper stuff that was happening, you know, But
Speaker 3: I feel like they were really trying to balance this,
Speaker 3: you know, nine oh two one oh echoes, right, Like
Speaker 3: we were like in that sauce of that with doing
Speaker 3: much more cutting edge, deep, you know, thirty something ideology
Speaker 3: and and themes.
Speaker 2: I think they as a show we're trying to figure
Speaker 2: themselves out. Yeah, we're all saying yeah, because there's some
Speaker 2: of your storylines about the I'm thinking of you with Terrence.
Speaker 3: And though I didn't watch those again okay, yeah, we
Speaker 3: haven't watched Gotten, but I just remember what you thought
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 2: I was wondering, wasn't you on for a while?
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, I think I think Ronda was really like
Speaker 3: moving through. Okay. Am I an artist? Am I a
Speaker 3: career woman, an entrepreneur? I've got my business here, and
Speaker 3: then there's some man who wants to come and just
Speaker 3: swoop me up and just you know, put me in
Speaker 3: as a trad wife, right exactly. And so you know
Speaker 3: that ski Oh that was one of the outfits I
Speaker 3: wish I had kept. Oh my goodness, this one suit.
Speaker 3: You know, this wash is such a great thing. He
Speaker 3: took me skiing like so he was taking her out
Speaker 3: of her, you know, out of her what she could.
Speaker 2: Have shown her, what he could be with him.
Speaker 3: But she was like, listen, I'm not such an eat.
Speaker 3: You can't just buy me. Hold on, I've got career
Speaker 3: moves and other things I want to do. So really,
Speaker 3: you know, I think these were ideas and themes that
Speaker 3: women were going through, age were going through. Yeah, so attracted,
Speaker 3: tract with what we've got.
Speaker 2: An over guy comes in who has a career and
Speaker 2: stuff and kind of just takes you to all this
Speaker 2: fancy stuff.
Speaker 3: With important fancy you know me now, So yeah, we're
Speaker 3: gonna do this together, you know.
Speaker 2: But you pick up, you come back to the apartment,
Speaker 2: you picked up, you pick your buds, right, yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: what was the outpit?
Speaker 3: That outfit was like a beautiful like onesie no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: when he took me skiing ski out But can we
Speaker 3: talk about my kiss with Nestor? Oh that was my
Speaker 3: first on screen kids, Oh my goodness. I never thought
Speaker 3: of myself as a leading lady. So to be able
Speaker 3: to have an on screen kiss, it was just like
Speaker 3: I was always like the sidekick, the friend, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, and so to like have a kiss, it
Speaker 3: was so so great, was it? It was so great?
Speaker 2: Was he? What was he like?
Speaker 3: He was marvels We had the same agent actually, so
Speaker 3: that was he was cool. He was very you know,
Speaker 3: just beautiful and marvelous. So so that was great too. Okay,
Speaker 3: like in terms of how the this was, this was
Speaker 3: good feedback that we got. So originally, you know, my
Speaker 3: character Ronda was going to be sort of like a
Speaker 3: plane chain and you couldn't really get a date, and
Speaker 3: they were going with that, with that idea, and then
Speaker 3: they then then then it wasn't really tracking.
Speaker 2: If she can't get.
Speaker 3: And then I started to have like boy friends and
Speaker 3: all these things. So that was so much fun.
Speaker 2: That was really really nice. So you did have effect
Speaker 2: there too. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Again again you know they wrote toward the character. That's
Speaker 3: that was also like what you know, good writers do,
Speaker 3: a good writing staff do well, they'll write to the
Speaker 3: to the.
Speaker 2: The chemistry that's already there. Yeah. Energy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of our fan questions that I thought was
Speaker 1: so hilarious is are you upset that they're the only
Speaker 1: one who didn't get to have a relationship with Grant?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I am.
Speaker 3: And you know the reason, it's not that they didn't
Speaker 3: consider it. I think the affiliates in Middle America weren't
Speaker 3: really going to buy it. Guys. You got to remember
Speaker 3: what times we were These were really like not eve
Speaker 3: all times the audience was not WOA, which is a
Speaker 3: good thing awaken to like where we need to grow
Speaker 3: and where we need to you know, we're taking back
Speaker 3: that term. It's it's like the audience wasn't ready. So yeah,
Speaker 3: so it was a it was a big thing, you
Speaker 3: know for me to even kiss you know, nestor really yeah,
Speaker 3: of course, I mean, of course Grant would be getting around.
Speaker 3: Of course Grant would be getting.
Speaker 2: The black girl.
Speaker 3: Ye black lovers off camera kidding me and she's a dancer,
Speaker 3: come on, So talking about Stevie, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Could have calmed Darren.
Speaker 6: Did you feel that, like through the course of season one,
Speaker 6: did you feel like the writing was there for you
Speaker 6: or like, did you see as the show is evolving,
Speaker 6: because we've had people say like, and I think you've
Speaker 6: even mentioned in interviews, like there were no black writers.
Speaker 2: And they didn't really know what to do with your character.
Speaker 2: They didn't know what.
Speaker 3: To do with my character, which is why eventually, like
Speaker 3: I left, especially when the show turned from like it's
Speaker 3: just gonna be nighttime soap opera and everybody's gonna be
Speaker 3: sleeping with everybody's like they didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3: But I never felt it. I never felt it. I
Speaker 3: got just as many fan letters. I was. I went
Speaker 3: to Spelling's house, you know, when we got through, when
Speaker 3: we got the pickups, I thought, I was going on,
Speaker 3: we're the rest with everyone.
Speaker 1: Everyone's going to be sleeping with everybody, and I that's
Speaker 1: such a fascinating No. No, of course, you know what.
Speaker 1: I brought outside people in for me, so I got
Speaker 1: to keep my good girl here. I sleep with outside people.
Speaker 1: But but that's an interesting thing. If they don't have
Speaker 1: people sleeping with everybody, and if they can't have interracial couples,
Speaker 1: how complicated that my.
Speaker 3: Mind is being it was going to be, and they're
Speaker 3: not being a writer in the room to reflect you know,
Speaker 3: that storyline, that character, you know, it just it just
Speaker 3: it matters, It really really matters. And so I didn't
Speaker 3: feel like I needed to, you know, go in there
Speaker 3: and advocate for any kinds of storylines. I was having
Speaker 3: a good time. Yeah, the clothing and the camaraderie. I
Speaker 3: was engaged with all of the certain line. No matter
Speaker 3: what the storyline is, Ronda always had something to say
Speaker 3: take on it. So you know, I was fine. And
Speaker 3: and like I said, it turned from her being like,
Speaker 3: you know, hard to date and everything to like having
Speaker 3: lots of dates and then eventually you know, getting married
Speaker 3: and whatever. So I was that was fine, right, living
Speaker 3: my best life getting married, you know, between episodes and stuff.
Speaker 3: It was so funny.
Speaker 2: So you got married during off hour, See I did?
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 3: It was so crazy, eleven months of dating and then
Speaker 3: I married my my ex. You know, we had a
Speaker 3: good sixteen year run and two beautiful kids and so
Speaker 3: but it was really and exciting, you know, that was
Speaker 3: my experience. It was my first series of regular job.
Speaker 3: I'm not complaining about a damn thing. That was pretty great,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. And all of you, all
Speaker 3: of it, we were so it was so much fun,
Speaker 3: you know, working. Yeah, so I know this is boring, right,
Speaker 3: there's no like drama.
Speaker 6: But I know, but it's yannimous, like you know, we're
Speaker 6: all telling the truth. Yeah, it happens to be.
Speaker 3: And lots of people were getting married too, Like didn't
Speaker 3: Josie get married that year.
Speaker 1: Too, honeymoons short as we kept filming, we never stopped
Speaker 1: filming filming.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was Thomas already married?
Speaker 1: No, Thomas met Liz during the film first season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was that time in our lives. Thomas
Speaker 3: and who else speaking a.
Speaker 2: List, these guys at me till later.
Speaker 1: Did not marry me, but Andrew got married during Yes
Speaker 1: he did babies, right, Heather, I'm not sure divorced and
Speaker 1: remarried during the show going on.
Speaker 3: Well, and Heather came our first season too, And okay,
Speaker 3: so so when it when it was not tracking that this,
Speaker 3: this twenty something angsty thing was going to really be
Speaker 3: what hooked us in because you were saying, this is
Speaker 3: another thought that I had. We had so much publicity,
Speaker 3: remember all of those weeks and and and photo shoots,
Speaker 3: and we had no we hadn't seen the script, and
Speaker 3: they were like, so what did it?
Speaker 1: And we were on like, yeah, your character, Like I
Speaker 1: couldn't I tell you yet?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Wow?
Speaker 3: And they were hooking, you know, putting us together in
Speaker 3: different shots. We went out to a desert and did
Speaker 3: a shot that we had a whole block party in
Speaker 3: the middle of melwork. They shut they shut down to
Speaker 3: have that. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2: No, I remember going to this mountain.
Speaker 1: They were doing an event autographs anding Magic Mountain. I
Speaker 1: don't think you came that day because there were just
Speaker 1: a few of us, the people who weren't shooting, and
Speaker 1: nobody came, people are like, who are you? People were saying,
Speaker 1: why are we sitting here?
Speaker 2: Like in this outdoor thing?
Speaker 3: So much publicity, it was like a hole. That's when
Speaker 3: I saw what a publicity machine was. And again, because
Speaker 3: we were on the fumes of nine to two one oh,
Speaker 3: that had so much hope. So they were hoping it
Speaker 3: was going to be the same kind of impact, just
Speaker 3: young adults and not teenagers, which they were. And so
Speaker 3: during the course of the show, then they started finding it.
Speaker 3: What's what's it gonna be? Then it was like, let's
Speaker 3: bring in the ringer, Let's in Neather, Heather to save
Speaker 3: the day.
Speaker 1: That was when it was falling apart. So did you
Speaker 1: do all the episodes in the first season. I did,
Speaker 1: so it was like thirty thirty, so you remember Heather
Speaker 1: coming on.
Speaker 3: Indeed, I remember I remember Billy getting recast. That was
Speaker 3: another like, yes.
Speaker 2: The other guy shot a week, shot shot a day,
Speaker 2: not a day, not a day, shot a day.
Speaker 3: But wasn't. But I feel like they were all these
Speaker 3: things leading up.
Speaker 2: We did a ton of press with him. We did
Speaker 2: press guy, this guy.
Speaker 1: Just when everybody was together. It just didn't that I
Speaker 1: ended up working with him later so he did what's
Speaker 1: his name again, Stephen Fan Steve.
Speaker 2: Really good actor. It's just such a time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, such a marvelous actor. And yeah, so I thought
Speaker 3: we were working because we were We had so much
Speaker 3: publicity to do before the show, so it was just
Speaker 3: the one day.
Speaker 1: I remember it as being one day, and we kept
Speaker 1: redoing the scene and redoing the scene and redoing the scene,
Speaker 1: and then they just said it wasn't like whatever they were.
Speaker 2: They were watching us so carefully because of the press.
Speaker 1: I think there hadn't been so much attention on would
Speaker 1: have gotten more legs because he was great.
Speaker 3: It was wonderful.
Speaker 1: But then I think Aaron had an idea and then
Speaker 1: brought this energy in with Andrew, which also worked really
Speaker 1: well obviously, But I think it was he was a
Speaker 1: victim of the intensity of the pressure we were all under.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think, like anything, they were trying to find
Speaker 3: what the show was. They had an idea of what
Speaker 3: the show is, and then and then they're shooting the show.
Speaker 3: It's like what you write, what you shoot, and then
Speaker 3: what you got, you know, So it was like like
Speaker 3: them figuring out that. But I just remember those these
Speaker 3: were shocking, like, Okay, you could just lose it, okay,
Speaker 3: you know, for your own like not bad acting or anything.
Speaker 2: It's like they're creating.
Speaker 3: A whole piece.
Speaker 2: Yeah with that, you're just a piece of it, you know.
Speaker 2: I over the years and all the rejection that comes
Speaker 2: with it, I remember calling my mom or talking to
Speaker 2: her and crying about something much later, about something I
Speaker 2: didn't get, and she just said, you know, Daphn, you
Speaker 2: try to think of it as a painting, and you're
Speaker 2: you're a color. You're a color rose. But they needed
Speaker 2: rose matter, they needed rose, you know, they needed they
Speaker 2: wanted the visuals. The visionaries wanted just something slightly different
Speaker 2: from your rose color. So they just want something different,
Speaker 2: and we all actors are literally just that's a hard
Speaker 2: you're a victim to that.
Speaker 1: They could come and go, well yeah, because the second
Speaker 1: you start working on the script, you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is me exactly to immediately see yourself as it
Speaker 1: and you're well, of course it was me, and they
Speaker 1: have a completely different idea.
Speaker 3: And even when you're watching something and be like I could.
Speaker 2: Do that, yeah right, well that yeah, all actors think exactly, yeah, yeah, total.
Speaker 3: Color that you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah you so Vanessa, do you know again, looking back
Speaker 2: thirty years later, with the lens of being in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, I mean, I just want to ask, Obviously,
Speaker 2: no black writers in the room back then, no people
Speaker 2: of color pretty much shit anywhere, and you know, making
Speaker 2: the rules and calling the shots and writing the stories
Speaker 2: and stuff. Do you feel for your career as an
Speaker 2: actress that it has changed? And where are we now?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, certainly, And even on Meloe's place. I mean,
Speaker 3: it wasn't like the show was in a vacuum, even
Speaker 3: though I didn't watch it after I was dismissed. And
Speaker 3: I'll tell you about that later, but there were Yeah,
Speaker 3: as my guy came on, and you know the people
Speaker 3: that populated Allison's office, you know, the real world, there
Speaker 3: were occasional black actor occasional occasional. But I took note
Speaker 3: of it, of course, because I had been fired and
Speaker 3: so I or let go, you know, and that that
Speaker 3: was traumatic. I gotta tell you, like, it's my first series,
Speaker 3: and I'm like in LA and it's my second job,
Speaker 3: my first series. I'm like, I'm on my trajectory. It
Speaker 3: was a really good lesson for me. So I had
Speaker 3: done the I had done all thirty episodes, and I
Speaker 3: worked the last day of the last show for the
Speaker 3: season and then I get a call from Chuck and
Speaker 3: actually because my my my ex husband was my manager
Speaker 3: at the time, and so Chuck Charles Pratt called him
Speaker 3: to say, yeah, it's not going on, and I was yeah,
Speaker 3: he was one of my Yeah, he's a writer, executive producer.
Speaker 3: So he gets the call and he's like grave and
Speaker 3: he's not da da And he gets off the phone.
Speaker 3: He says, Vanessa, they're they're letting you go. I was like, huh.
Speaker 3: And I had already been to Spelling's house. We had
Speaker 3: already had champagne that we got picked up for the
Speaker 3: second season and all that stuff, and I was like what.
Speaker 3: He was like, yeah, no, they're not You're not going
Speaker 3: to be in the next season.
Speaker 2: I was devastated.
Speaker 3: Oh, I mean like devastated because there was no indication.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like, oh, you're not getting the fan mail,
Speaker 3: and it was like am I and you So you
Speaker 3: start thinking, oh, was I horrible to work with? Was
Speaker 3: my acting that I could, you know, just all of
Speaker 3: the things. And then it took me into like a
Speaker 3: very like let me go into like a spiritual let
Speaker 3: me go to. What I know is like, this is
Speaker 3: not whether I'm working or not is not the value
Speaker 3: of who I am, who I am as an artist,
Speaker 3: and and I got really clear. I went to agape,
Speaker 3: I got involved into taking classes. I just went deeply
Speaker 3: into my spiritual roots. You know, I was raised Baptist,
Speaker 3: but you know I was doing the New Thought, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of practical mysticism and practical spiritual just basically a
Speaker 3: way to make God real and part of my everyday life,
Speaker 3: not just something I did on Sunday or whatever. God
Speaker 3: is love and God is you, and you are an
Speaker 3: expression of God's love. And so all of that resonated
Speaker 3: so wonderfully for me. So I was happy to find
Speaker 3: like a spiritual home at a GOPE with Reverend Michael
Speaker 3: and all the teachings there. And so as I said,
Speaker 3: I went, I took classes because I was so hurt.
Speaker 3: I was so so hurt. I mean, so much of
Speaker 3: your value, you know you. So what I came to
Speaker 3: was that, oh, if I let whether I'm working or
Speaker 3: not be the measure of how good I am as
Speaker 3: an actor, then I'll always be at the mercy of
Speaker 3: this business of someone else. I said, I'm still that
Speaker 3: fine actor who booked that job and booked the jobs before,
Speaker 3: whether I'm working or not. So it was a very
Speaker 3: painful but very purposeful lesson to take going forward. And
Speaker 3: then regards I booked, other things happen. So I went on,
Speaker 3: but it was really it was so it was it
Speaker 3: was I felt like a bait and switch kind of thing.
Speaker 3: And again I was like, well, if I had known
Speaker 3: I wasn't coming back, because the other thing about not
Speaker 3: know being known, not knowing that I was coming back
Speaker 3: was I could have auditioned for other shows living. I
Speaker 3: could have gotten an on Living Single. I could There
Speaker 3: was like a bunch of shows. I mean I taught.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, there would have been opportunities. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been like sitting out the whole next season
Speaker 3: because I would have had my next show. But what that,
Speaker 3: what that gave me opportunity to do was go to Spain,
Speaker 3: go to Europe and be the face of Melrose Place
Speaker 3: in your So then I got a show in Spain
Speaker 3: on Tellasinco, and I had like all these people like
Speaker 3: mobbing my car because Melwoy's Place was playing in all
Speaker 3: these places. And so you guys go on to set
Speaker 3: working and I was getting all the love and kudos,
Speaker 3: and from that appearance in Madrid, Teleasinkle offered me a
Speaker 3: variety show, So now, of course I did. I did
Speaker 3: a show called Vivanos Novios grand Fiesta. I was in
Speaker 3: Spain for four months, getting tutored in Spanish, speaking in Spanish,
Speaker 3: singing Gloria Stefan's shows. I'm like a whole lola Forlana.
Speaker 3: Yea variety show thing. It was amazing, That's incredible, amazing.
Speaker 2: I've done a show in Spain. I was a guest
Speaker 2: on one of those. I know what you mean, like literally.
Speaker 3: Like you know, in terms of like what the format
Speaker 3: of these shows, but I was I would I did
Speaker 3: like full on production numbers.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: It's just the best thing ever, isn't it amazing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, just hearing your story about this first time I've
Speaker 2: heard all this, and I think we've all had that
Speaker 2: in our careers at times where you just you know,
Speaker 2: have gotten let go or something isn't working out and
Speaker 2: you have to go deeper and you have to find
Speaker 2: yourself worth and your value because even if you you're
Speaker 2: constantly being rejected, and I remember it being My story
Speaker 2: came later about this, but just thinking it's over falling.
Speaker 3: To day I ever work again, And also like who.
Speaker 2: Am I do?
Speaker 3: Is my my child?
Speaker 2: Because you have done this your whole life since you
Speaker 2: were child, and your dreams, and you just think is
Speaker 2: your child dream over?
Speaker 3: Is that it?
Speaker 2: They are discarding you, And kudos for you for freaking
Speaker 2: going deeper and finding that spiritual anchor and the truer truth,
Speaker 2: the bigger truth of you. And then you find there's infinite,
Speaker 2: There's more infinite.
Speaker 3: You are so much more than that. Bronda's Deep, Puck
Speaker 3: and Wayne Dyer and all of these truth teachers that
Speaker 3: I was able to find as a result. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think I would have found them anyway because I was.
Speaker 3: I'm a seekert. We're all, you know, trying to you know,
Speaker 3: balance that and I and I thank my my my
Speaker 3: religious roots, my Baptist church, you know, going to church
Speaker 3: every Sunday. My grandmother was the was the organist. So
Speaker 3: I have all that. So I had a spiritual practice
Speaker 3: and then I sharpened it and tuned it to make
Speaker 3: sense for my life, you know, I tailored it to
Speaker 3: you know, Okay, I want this part of it, not
Speaker 3: that part of it. I want the love message. I
Speaker 3: want like I want to live as Jesus, you know,
Speaker 3: I want to do I want to know that I'm
Speaker 3: you know that he came as an example of how
Speaker 3: you can live in peace and be kind to you know,
Speaker 3: your your your community and your world and make a difference.
Speaker 3: So it was a yeah, it was a it's like,
Speaker 3: how are you going to survive this Hollywood thing, this
Speaker 3: monster if you don't have something deeper and richer to
Speaker 3: anchor you and hold you because most of it is no,
Speaker 3: most of our lives as actors is no. And it's
Speaker 3: only a like it's like.
Speaker 2: You are bigger than this than this job that you
Speaker 2: came in to do and A and B. Most people
Speaker 2: they quit before they even had a chance, but we
Speaker 2: have all you know, you did that and you kept
Speaker 2: going and kept going, and it's like you were meant
Speaker 2: to do this. Well that was the thing.
Speaker 1: It was like.
Speaker 3: It was also like a calling, right, So it's like
Speaker 3: it's not like I could really quit and be happy
Speaker 3: like this was what my calling is? My service? You know,
Speaker 3: like when when you know that you would do it
Speaker 3: and have done it, whether they were paying you or not,
Speaker 3: you it's like, oh, and that's when I would talk
Speaker 3: to people. It was like, well, find the thing that
Speaker 3: really you love that you would do whether we're paying
Speaker 3: you or not, because then that's your passion. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it was, it was. It was a good time.
Speaker 3: But oh girl, but it got me ready for hell.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Hollywood, like for real, for real, Like they'll
Speaker 3: roll out the red carpet for you and they'll snatch
Speaker 3: that in a litter.
Speaker 6: A lot of fans were so excited that you're a podcast.
Speaker 6: I mean there's you know, you've got a ton of
Speaker 6: fans for Melrose. Do you feel that in your life,
Speaker 6: like you still have people like, oh I.
Speaker 3: Love your Melrose. Melrose brought me into a wider America, right,
Speaker 3: so like like my fans are from like so so
Speaker 3: when people recognize me in airport, I don't know what
Speaker 3: they're what they're linked in too. You know, certainly people
Speaker 3: of a certain age well like Melrose and being and
Speaker 3: being that representation on Melrose Place was also very crucial
Speaker 3: and very very marvelous. I know, lots of black people said,
Speaker 3: I start watching it when you left, I started watching it,
Speaker 3: so you you know you left a whole It was
Speaker 3: a whole connection. Yeah, yeah, so a whole swath of
Speaker 3: the audience was left, you know, but you went.
Speaker 2: On to do I'm just I went on and looked
Speaker 2: Murder One. You did several episodes Chicago Hope, of course,
Speaker 2: Soul Food.
Speaker 3: I was a series regular Murder one. Yeah, and that
Speaker 3: was like a very I talked about that being I
Speaker 3: was really a very high, very highly paid extra because
Speaker 3: while I okay, so the the oh J trial was
Speaker 3: going on, so we were doing the first sort of
Speaker 3: like well maybe not the first, but like a court
Speaker 3: trial like law office kind of show, and then the
Speaker 3: real life crime you know, court show of a century
Speaker 3: took over the airway be televised. So then our little
Speaker 3: murder show, you know, people were like, yeah, okay, whatever, Boddy,
Speaker 3: let's really see what's going on. And this is on
Speaker 3: the heels of the Rodney King thing, right, So right,
Speaker 3: so it's volatile times and LA's smoking, you know, and
Speaker 3: and and and and because you know, the community felt
Speaker 3: the way it did about how those officers got, you know, free,
Speaker 3: when when that verdict came, even though there was questionable,
Speaker 3: we said, this is American law. This is what if
Speaker 3: you have enough money, you can get off. And so
Speaker 3: this man is going to you know, I mean all
Speaker 3: of us knew, you know, they look very mean. Yes,
Speaker 3: you know, so none of no one was convinced, but
Speaker 3: we were like, this is how all goes down. This
Speaker 3: is how it went down. You know, these those white
Speaker 3: guys got to off can afforded, don't Yeah, exactly, you know,
Speaker 3: American justice has a has a price stag and and
Speaker 3: certainly a color, but it definitely it can be bought.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 2: So, and you were on Murder one.
Speaker 3: I'm a Murder one track girl one exactly, Well, what
Speaker 3: was that this podcast? Why do you think we need
Speaker 3: exactly to my own my own cheat notes. But so,
Speaker 3: so I had an episode of a little breakout episode
Speaker 3: on Murder one, and you know, my boyfriend got arrested,
Speaker 3: and then I went to my bosses and so it
Speaker 3: was really really great. And then they got into the
Speaker 3: show the anchoring, the anchoring storyline, and it didn't really
Speaker 3: include or they didn't really include Ron disppointed. I mean, Ronda,
Speaker 3: what was my character? And that my character's point of view?
Speaker 3: So I was just answering the phone, and I'd I'd
Speaker 3: be chilling in my dressing room on that Fox a lot.
Speaker 3: I'd be like Okay, yeah, I want to pay me
Speaker 3: this series of regular money. I'm here for it. And
Speaker 3: so but it was it was still wonderful. I was
Speaker 3: on the set, I was watching what the directors do
Speaker 3: and you know, lighting and all that stuff. So it
Speaker 3: was it was a great education and it was wonderful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and not lasted a better none of you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that soul Food, So how is it to be on
Speaker 2: soul Food after all of these other being sort of
Speaker 2: minimalized on the whole food.
Speaker 3: Was a mecca. So the only you know, I wish
Speaker 3: it were different that we were shooting in La but
Speaker 3: I think that would have turned that would have I
Speaker 3: don't know if we would have bonded the same way
Speaker 3: because sort of like being at away camp and forging
Speaker 3: friendships and being and the show was so big and
Speaker 3: we didn't really know because we're tucked away in Canada
Speaker 3: and Toronto shooting it. So we had no idea that
Speaker 3: I mean, we had an idea because Melinda Williams was
Speaker 3: telling us, listen, this is about to be thing. You know, listen, listen,
Speaker 3: people gonna be making babies like all this. He predicted
Speaker 3: all of it, but we it might have been more
Speaker 3: distracting being in La with everyone's life and their connections.
Speaker 3: You know, coming in we've had you know access, We
Speaker 3: had lots of wonderful guest stars, but we've had more.
Speaker 3: The casting extras was sometimes difficult. We're doing it because
Speaker 3: Canada is really a different country and so some of
Speaker 3: the cultural differences. You know, Canada, the African American people
Speaker 3: there are from the Caribbean, and so, you know, I
Speaker 3: remember the director having to like teach these people, teach
Speaker 3: the guy who was the was hired to be the
Speaker 3: pastor how to lay his hand on somebody. You know,
Speaker 3: these things that are like part of the culture of
Speaker 3: the African American church in the States. It was different
Speaker 3: in at least this actor. You know, maybe I won't
Speaker 3: put it all on you know, but this particular but
Speaker 3: we had that like lots of times with the extras.
Speaker 3: I mean, they were wonderful. It was a wonderful pool
Speaker 3: of actors, but they weren't as well trained because there
Speaker 3: wasn't a whole lot of things for black actors in
Speaker 3: Canada to do.
Speaker 2: Egather so different.
Speaker 3: Now, Yeah, it was like so all of the white
Speaker 3: actors had like lots of training and lots of opportunities.
Speaker 3: But lots of the African American actors that we weren't
Speaker 3: you know, flying in from LA and other places. You know,
Speaker 3: this was their first job or you know, they didn't
Speaker 3: have a lot of training or a lot of time
Speaker 3: on set. So yeah, it was, it was. It was marvelous,
Speaker 3: you know. And again like you make a family and
Speaker 3: your your your cast is your family. And so those
Speaker 3: are my sisters for life. And the showrunner who like
Speaker 3: the show writing was like got used. It was. It
Speaker 3: was everything. There was nothing that needed to be explained.
Speaker 3: I didn't have to come in and make a case
Speaker 3: for it. Listen, I can't say those people, you know,
Speaker 3: like it was, things were understood and and we were
Speaker 3: all so really trying to humanize the African American experience
Speaker 3: on screen, like we we came in our curls, we
Speaker 3: went to bed with our night capsle you like all
Speaker 3: these things that we wanted to like humanize the gamut
Speaker 3: of emotion. And yes, in one family, you could have
Speaker 3: somebody who was having some criminal element done of stuff
Speaker 3: they're going through and an attorney at a top firm,
Speaker 3: like the whole gamut of what is the African American
Speaker 3: experience in this one family, and again we were on
Speaker 3: the heels of the popularity and the great success that
Speaker 3: the movie was, and so then that was, you know, amazing.
Speaker 3: We were stepping into the shoes. So again a lot
Speaker 3: of like pressure at the beginning right where you're there's
Speaker 3: already an ip as it's called today, Right, there's already
Speaker 3: the ip. You're stepping into the shoes of other wonderful
Speaker 3: actors who had made this show. But when we would
Speaker 3: get questioned and interviews and stuff like that, well, why
Speaker 3: do you feel stepping into Vivica A. Fox's role? And
Speaker 3: I was like, you know, it's like a great song.
Speaker 3: We want to hear Billy sing it. We want to
Speaker 3: hear Dinah Washington sing it. It's like when you've got
Speaker 3: like a great character and a great story, it's just
Speaker 3: going to be another take on a wonderful thing, and
Speaker 3: you're going to see what you're going to see. And
Speaker 3: then we as as the series actors, got to really
Speaker 3: expand these roles that that those initial actors in the
Speaker 3: movie set up so wonderfully. So it was really great
Speaker 3: and as a as a training ground of how to
Speaker 3: be on set, how to like everything that they're souped
Speaker 3: and nuts. I got to direct. I wrote and directed
Speaker 3: a piece. Yeah not because they wouldn't let me direct
Speaker 3: an episode, which is a time on the tradition. So
Speaker 3: my agents go in like second season, it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: we'd like to have this, and they're like, well, you
Speaker 3: know whatever. But but the heads of the network was
Speaker 3: like Jerry Offset, he was like, yeah, I heard you
Speaker 3: guys wanted to direct and let me how about this?
Speaker 3: And so they gave us a budget and I got
Speaker 3: to direct an independent a thirty minute film and so
Speaker 3: out budget to do your own thing, and you wrote
Speaker 3: it and I wrote and directed it. Yes right now,
Speaker 3: Yeah I do, I do, I do, But I haven't
Speaker 3: directed in such a long time, you know.
Speaker 2: What I mean.
Speaker 3: But it was that was such a marvelous opportunity. It
Speaker 3: was like that that sort of doggedness, that resilience, like
Speaker 3: what I still want to direct. And it was like
Speaker 3: this because I think because they were not in Canada,
Speaker 3: they had an obligation to hire local hires in Canada,
Speaker 3: so that it was a tricky thing getting the cast
Speaker 3: to direct an episode, you know, which is which is
Speaker 3: a time of tradition. You get to direct episode of
Speaker 3: America because you're from the Yeah, they need to employ Canadians, right.
Speaker 3: That was part of like the buy into being able
Speaker 3: to shoot in Canada and get all of those write offs.
Speaker 3: And remember I think it was like an Ayatzi strike
Speaker 3: or something like that. So being in Canada, we had
Speaker 3: acts we could keep going. Yeah, it was yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: it was like some weird stuff going on.
Speaker 2: We have time for one question. There were so many
Speaker 2: great questions, fans so excited to have you here. But
Speaker 2: like one of the really fantastic questions is what do
Speaker 2: you think Ronda would be doing today? I got it.
Speaker 3: She's running a wellness center called Body and Soul and
Speaker 3: it's dancing and it's all massage and you know, all
Speaker 3: the things wellness and health and diet and all you
Speaker 3: know she's getting she's keeping, she's keeping it in the body.
Speaker 3: But because her husband said her up, you know, with
Speaker 3: the nice little package, did she marry Terrence, she's but
Speaker 3: they're divorcing. There was wonder.
Speaker 2: That sounds amazing. I want to go to body.
Speaker 3: I know comes to Body and Soul. That just downloaded
Speaker 3: from the angel that you know, I was looking at
Speaker 3: the fan questions we asked most of them because there
Speaker 3: we asked all those the.
Speaker 2: Only one we actually didn't get to just questions of
Speaker 2: one mind. That's great. I love I love envisioning Ronda
Speaker 2: exactly where Vanessa.
Speaker 1: And I love envisioning all of us there right exactly.
Speaker 2: I mean, we could talk all day, But is there
Speaker 2: anything else that you wanted to like say or you
Speaker 2: remember from what I was going to say?
Speaker 3: Just in terms. I was having a wonderful dinner catching
Speaker 3: up with my other castmate, dear friend's sister friend, Melinda Williams,
Speaker 3: and and she was talking about, you know this, this
Speaker 3: impact that we have in the in the minds, in
Speaker 3: the zeitgeist of American television, and and that these characters
Speaker 3: live in the context, in context of their time and
Speaker 3: in the context of our lives, and what a beautiful
Speaker 3: like opportunity and honor we've had to like tell these
Speaker 3: stories through these characters, and that this is all a
Speaker 3: part of the context of who we are as artists.
Speaker 3: So I thought that was like a really powerful way
Speaker 3: to hold what we do as sacred. Is so easy
Speaker 3: to be like, oh, what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 3: Like what's your next thing? And all you know, all
Speaker 3: those things and I I just feel like, you know what,
Speaker 3: what we're doing, the stories we were able to tell,
Speaker 3: what we get to do, this rarefied air to be
Speaker 3: actors working as often, you know, to work at all
Speaker 3: is a is a blessing, you know. So I feel
Speaker 3: like I feel so grateful to have shared this space
Speaker 3: and this time in our lives that was long ago
Speaker 3: and yesterday, you know what I mean. It's just like
Speaker 3: it goes by in a blink. And and I we
Speaker 3: got like grown children who are married in and starting
Speaker 3: all the things.
Speaker 2: I love to give it real value beyond just what
Speaker 2: the ratings did or whatever.
Speaker 3: Or what it was just to do, like we mean
Speaker 3: something to people. We're part of people's story, you know,
Speaker 3: and part of people's life and nurtured their their beingness
Speaker 3: and growing up and entertained and enlivened and enlightened you
Speaker 3: know all the things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, partly shift when that comes up for us a lot.
Speaker 1: We shared that time. We were the same age as
Speaker 1: the people watching it, so we have this shared memory
Speaker 1: all of us. We have the experience of the show.
Speaker 1: They watched the show, like we really share it with people.
Speaker 1: It's a really special thing coming of age, right.
Speaker 6: And It's such a great way to sort of wrap
Speaker 6: this up book. We have loved being with you as
Speaker 6: a as a person, and we shared this thing in
Speaker 6: our past, but we're so happy to have you in
Speaker 6: our presence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we love We hope. I want to I do.
Speaker 3: I want to come back.
Speaker 2: Guys and you and everyone, We're getting there, and thank you, thank.
Speaker 3: You for heaven. Thank you. I look forward to us all,
Speaker 3: you know, being out together and meeting our fans again.
Speaker 3: That would be really really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're so party. Or you can write us something
Speaker 2: and we can all do something now another excuse to
Speaker 2: sit down and.
Speaker 3: Chay exactly all the things. So I was so thrilled
Speaker 3: and excited to come. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6: We'll see you next time too, and thanks again all
Speaker 6: the for all the fan questions and all the listeners.
Speaker 6: Keep keep subscribing and morning, well we'll see you next week.